Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock on the Oscars stage today for a joke on his wife actor Jada Pinkett Smith in a dramatic episode that stunned the audience and people across the world. Minutes later Smith won for best actor in a leading role for “King Richard” and apologized to the Academy saying, “Love will make you do crazy things”.
For the unversed, Rock joked about Jada Pinkett Smith starring in G.I. Jane II for her closely shaved head. In the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane”, actor Demi Moore had played the titular character who shaved her head as a Navy seal in a total transformation.
This didn’t go down well with the Smiths and what unfolded next is now stuff of Oscar history.
Read: Video: Will Smith slaps Chris Rock on Oscars stage after joke on wife, apologises
Many on Twitter said Smith’s violent behavior was absolutely not the answer to Rock’s joke which was clearly in poor taste.
Pinkett Smith has opened up about her struggle with alopecia areata and revealed her diagnosis in 2018 at the Red Table Talk series where she said it "was terrifying" to deal with in the beginning. Alopecia areata is condition causes severe hair loss when the body’s immune system attacks hair follicles. Last year, Pinkett Smith shaved her hair off.
Also read: When Will Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith openly spoke about her alopecia struggle
However, this is not the first time actor-comic Chris Rock has thrown shade at the Smiths.
In 2016, when Rock was hosting the Oscars, he made jokes about the Hollywood power couple too who had boycotted the Academy Awards along with a string of other actors protesting all-white nominees.
Rock, who is African-American, had however not opted out of hosting the show and in his opening monologue slighted Pinkett Smith for boycotting the awards.
“Jada got mad. She said she is not coming and I am like isn’t she on a TV show? Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties – I wasn’t invited… But I understand you’re mad, I am not hating… Jada’s mad her man Will was not nominated for Concussion. I get it… You are saying it’s not fair that Will was this good and not nominated. You’re right. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West,” Rock said as the audience kept breaking into bouts of laughter.
That year, neither Will or Jada were in the audience.
Watch the video here:
Also read: Oscars 2022: Will Smith wins Best Actor for 'King Richard' after smacking Chris Rock on stage
The Academy, in a tweet, said it didn’t condone “violence of any form” without taking any names. After striking Rock, Smith went back to his seat and said, “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth,” twice. A flabbergasted Chris Rock then continued to announce the nominees for the Best Documentary Film.
